Demon Hunter: Ben Gerber

Demon Hunter is where we grill a NaGa DeMon participant about games, their goals for November, and more. Read on to meet today’s Demon Hunter, Ben Gerber!

Hi Ben! Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m Ben Gerber. I’ve been running the multi-author blog Troll in the Corner since September 2008. It’s dedicated to all things table top with a hefty side helping of other geek related stuff. I’ve been publishing my own RPG content through DriveThruRPG since mid-2010. I started with Pathfinder expansions and have been gently working my way into my own mini-RPGs.

My first really successful product was Argyle & Crew, a base game of extremely light RPG rules for kids, where rather than worrying about a character sheet with all sorts of numbers and explanations scattered over it, you have a sock puppet, called a Soppet. The players are limited only by their imaginations and a very loose set of rules, although there is a basic dice mechanic available for those who want to do a little more with it.

I’ve since published Encounters ~ Plots ~ Places, a 60 page, system neutral source book for just about any fantasy RPG. It’s full of detailed NPCs, items, places and encounters. I’ve also developed Something Went Wrong, a mini-RPG in which every player gets a turn at being the GM and it’s a race to the last surviving character. SWW takes about 5-10 minutes to set up and plays in an hour or two.

Which games impress you and why?

I’m really enjoying story based games right now, things like Fiasco, School Daze, and whatnot. I’m interested in how they use game mechanics to facilitate story, rather than dictate it. Although I’ll always have a soft spot for the games I played as a teen in the mid to late 80s as well.

How are you participating in NaGa DeMon this year?

I’ve got three projects currently in the works. I plan on using NaGa DeMon as a push to finish at least one of them

First is Aruneus – the setting that started this all for me. It’s a high fantasy, zombie apocalypse setting that utilizes the Pathfinder rule set. It’s been 100 years since flesh eating zombies have decimated the world. Now things are starting to come back from the edge, but the undead are still a huge, environmental threat.

Next is Upgrade Wars, a deck-building, tactical combat game I’ve been working feverishly on for the past few months.

Lastly is a game who’s setting I’ve mapped out but the mechanics are spotty at best. It’s tentatively called No Spill Blood and takes place on an earth far in the future, when humans have up and left or otherwise vanished.

What are you expecting to be a challenge over November?

Time. It’s always time. I’ve got a day job that can get fairly intense, my wife who I enjoy spending time with, two fairly young kids that I love. That basically leaves the times when no one is awake but me to work on these things.

What are you looking forward to over November?

American Thanksgiving and having an excuse to need to work on these things.

Who would you most like to play a game with?

I’d love to gather together a contingent of folks who are in the public eye and know what Dungeons and Dragons is and then play something completely different with them – say Fiasco or SWW.